Agro-morphological performance of moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia) lines in severe drought stressed and rain-fed condition

Abstract

Germplasm comprising of 32 entries collected from the main core collection was selected and evaluated at National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), Pusa campus in New Delhi under terminal drought (no moisture) and rain-fed (control) conditions. The results show highly significant differences for genotype, treatment (Stress) and GxS effect. Agronomic morphological characters were observed under both the severe drought and rain-fed conditions. Water stress had an effect in plant height and roots of plant: plants in control condition were taller in height of the upper vegetative part but the roots showed a different response as the roots of plants under drought stress where longer than those in control samples. Chlorophyll content showed highly significant difference for genotype and combination effect of genotype by Stress treatment, the treatment effect showed significant difference. Even though the chlorophyll was high in both the treatments, had almost similar chlorophyll content. Five accession, (IC 129177, IC 103016, IC 415139, IC 415155 and IC 36157) and two varieties (Maru moth and Jadia) were drought tolerant as they managed to reach flowering stage, had pod set and reached maturity even though the yield was significantly lower than in plants under rain-fed conditions.